Brennan, a researcher at Yale University, became the object of national ridicule last month when a conservative news site reported[1] she received a $384,949 from the U.S. government-funded National Science Foundation to study duck genitalia.

The research grant was frequently styled as yet another example of government waste, but this time, the scientist getting hammered didn’t stay quiet. Brennan wrote a guest column[2] for Slate.com[3] defending the research.

“The commentary and headlines in some of the recent articles reflect outrage that the study was about duck genitals, as if there is something inherently wrong or perverse with this line of research,” Brennan wrote. “Imagine if medical research drew the line at the belt!

“Genitalia, dear readers, are where the rubber meets the road, evolutionarily. To fully understand why some individuals are more successful than others during reproduction, there may be no better place to look.

“The importance of evolutionary research on other species’ genitalia to the medical field has been recently highlighted in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. Generating new knowledge of what factors affect genital morphology in ducks, one of the few vertebrate species other than humans that form pair bonds and exhibit violent sexual coercion, may have significant applied uses in the future, but we must conduct the basic research first.”

The scientist says that her research, first funded during the Bush administration, was prompted by the fact that duck penises are corkscrew-shaped but turn counterclockwise while duck vaginas are spiral-shaped but turn the other way. She wanted to know why this was and how it fit with “sexual conflict” in evolution.

Brennan argues that basic research should be funded by the government because private interests have no interest in funding research that has no immediate commercial application. She cites the example of Geckskin, a high-tech adhesive product developed at the University of Massachussetts only after decades of research on geckos.

In other words, basic scientific inquisition begets knowledge which then begets other applications that benefit us all.

That’s not quackery. That’s science. And Americans should be proud to fund it.